Teaching and Learning Accreditation

We accredit continuous professional development (CPD) programmes which are delivered by higher education providers both within the UK and internationally. Aligning professional development to the UKPSF.

COVID-19 update

The deadline for institutions submitting for UKPSF accreditation in this round is 31 March. Through Advance HE’s developmental review process and our discussions with institutions we are aware that most institutions are in the final stages of preparing to submit and so we do not plan to change this deadline. If there are institutions who feel this may be problematic for them, we will work flexibly to agree timelines that work in the current circumstances.

This is a nationally-recognised framework for benchmarking success within higher education teaching and learning support. The PSF can be applied to professional development programmes at an individual or institutional level to improve the quality of teaching and learning and recognise excellence.

Accreditation is considered a ‘badge of quality’, requiring institutions to embed the PSF within policy and strategy indicating clear commitment to the enhancement of teaching and learning.

Programmes/schemes can be accredited as meeting the requirements of one or more of the four descriptors of the PSF. This means that successful participants on these programmes will be eligible to be awarded one of the four categories of Fellowship; Associate Fellowship, Fellowship, Senior Fellowship or Principal Fellowship. Fellows are entitled to use post-nominal letters (AFHEA, FHEA, SFHEA, PFHEA).

Find out more about accreditation

If you would like to find out more about our teaching and learning accreditation, complete the form below and one of our membership team will be in touch.

Advance HE Membership

Advance HE membership includes a Teaching and Learning Accreditation package with access to the accreditation review that can result in the award of the accreditation. It also includes a range of support to help institutions both enhance their practice and achieve professional recognition for their staff.

This package raises the profile of teaching and learning in your institution, celebrating its importance alongside research activities, demonstrating to staff and students a commitment to the quality of teaching.

An Insight into Teaching and Learning Accreditation - video series

The benefits of Accreditation

Accreditation accredits higher education institutions initial and continuing professional development (CPD) programmes against the professional standards framework (PSF). Accreditation brings benefits to both academic staff and to higher education institutions by:

raising the profile of teaching and learning, and celebrating its importance alongside research activities

providing a structured approach to the development, recognition and reward of staff who teach and/or support learning

demonstrating to students a measurable commitment to the quality of teaching

raising the standards of teaching and encouraging good practice

enabling staff to gain professional recognition for their successful professional practice as an educator

making it possible to benchmark provision against internationally recognised quality standards

A best practice approach to teaching and learning

The UK Professional Standards Framework for Teaching and Supporting Learning in Higher Education (PSF) is a globally recognised framework for benchmarking success within higher education teaching and learning support. The PSF can be applied to professional development programmes at an individual or institutional level to improve the quality of teaching and learning and recognise excellence.

Accreditation provides external and independent confirmation that professional development is aligned with the PSF. Accreditation provides participants on accredited programmes with the opportunity to be professionally recognised through the Fellowship scheme in recognition of their continuing success in teaching and learning support.

Good practice in use of dialogue in accredited schemes – report by Dr Ruth Pilkington

This report, authored by Dr Ruth Pilkington, outlines lessons, issues and recommendations for those using a dialogic route and is illustrated by good practice case studies shared by colleagues leading accredited schemes which successfully use dialogue at Edinburgh Napier University, Ulster University, and York St John University. These exemplars emerge from cycles of implementation, review and enhancement by these academics and provide invaluable insights to guide practitioners.

Accreditation or Approval

Which is right for your institution?

Accreditation

The defining feature of Accreditation is that upon successful completion of an accredited programme or scheme, participating individuals are automatically eligible to be awarded professional recognition at the appropriate Fellowship category.

Approval

Approval differs from Accreditation in that it does not automatically result in participating individuals being awarded professional recognition as a Fellow. Approval is external confirmation that a product/resource is aligned to the PSF and therefore may be used as evidence towards an application for Fellowship.

Annual CPD Review

Advance HE requires institutions to complete a brief annual review of all accredited CPD schemes. At present the we do not require an annual review for accredited taught programmes.

We provide a template for this report, which contains data specific to the institution. This personalised template will be sent to institutions during September each year.

These annual reports serve several purposes. They:

provide a platform for celebrating the positive impact that developmental opportunities offered through accredited provision have made within the organisation

encourage institutions to evaluate the strengths and areas for further development of their accredited provision to lead to future improvements in the next accreditation cycle

will be used to inform the opportunities for support and guidance material provided by Advance HE

will inform the annual visit planning of Advance HE as part of sector wide quality enhancement initiatives

will help us to identify good practice which we may then be able to disseminate with the wider sector with the permission of the institution concerned.

The 2018/19 Guidance notes are available for accredited CPD scheme leaders and the individualised templates for institutions to complete will be issued by the end of October 2019. This template will arrive attached to an email from the CPD Review mailbox cpdreview@advance-he.ac.uk. The template will be pre-populated with data for the individual institution related to award of Fellowship through the accredited CPD provision. At this stage we are not introducing a requirement for a review of accredited credit-bearing provision (e.g. post graduate certificate).

Success rates in accredited CPD schemes

In addition to qualitative commentaries from institutions, the Annual CPD Review 2015-16 also gathered quantitative data related to first application success rates in internal schemes. The ‘Success rates in Accredited CPD schemes’ report provides a summary of success rates across 103 institutions and provides opportunity for comparison with direct application success rates over the same period.

It is hoped that institutions will find this summary analysis of the sector-wide data useful as a benchmark to support interpretation of their own institution’s internal data. Comparison of success data should also support institutions to identify and consider any areas that may benefit from some further development to enhance the operation of accredited CPD schemes and/or enhance support in place for individuals engaging in these internal schemes.

Programme of annual visits

In addition to requiring an annual review from institutions with accredited CPD provision, annually we will visit a number of institutions to observe their internal fellowship judgement-making processes. These institutions will be contacted in advance to arrange a visit, although Advance HE reserves the right to request access to the operation of any accredited programmes.

Advance HE will visit a variety of institutions, spread across the UK, with schemes that are already in operation including a mix of those in year one, two and three of the accreditation cycle. These visits will provide the sampled institution with constructive developmental feedback on the operations observed and will inform the opportunities for support and guidance material provided by us. If concerns arise as a result of an institutional visit we will be able to work with the institution in a proactive, developmental manner to ensure that provision operates as explicitly accredited.

Accreditation resources

Find useful guidance and application documentation, along with documentation for the annual review of CPD schemes, approvals guidance and the Continuum Model of Scholarship in our dedicated accreditation resources area.

Find out more about teaching and learning accreditation

Complete the form below and one of our membership team will be in touch shortly regarding your enquiry. In the meantime if you would like to find out more about membership, see further information here.

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